JOIN THE ROONEYS: CATCH THE “CHRISTMAS SPIRIT” AND GIVE TO THE TOY AND COAT DRIVE AT EMPIRE CITY CASINO

YONKERS — Timothy J. Rooney,president and CEO of Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway, announced the casino and raceway’s 10th anniversary “Christmas Spirit Toy and Coat Drive” to assist families in need during the holiday season.

The 10-year anniversary is an extra reason for the community to get involved in the drive, Rooney said. The team at Empire City hopes this year’s effort is the best of the past decade.

The drive is underway and continues through Thursday, December 15. Donations will be accepted every day throughout the period at the promotions booth. Patrons are asked to bring new, unwrapped toys and/or new or gently used coats anytime during that period. The items will be delivered to local charitable organizations for the Christmas Holidays.

The toy and coat drive has become a holiday tradition at Empire City Casino for the past nine years, and thousands of toys and coats have been donated since 2007 when the campaign was launched under Mr. Rooney’s guidance. “There are no greater deeds than charity and service,” Rooney said. “No act of kindness or generosity is ever too small.”

Empire City Casino is located at 810 Yonkers Avenue (at Central Avenue) in Yonkers, New York, Westchester County (I-87 to Exit 2). Josh Blake, president of Costa Mesa, California-based The Gander Group will once again donate 500 toys as he has each year.

Empire City and Yonkers Raceway CEO Tim Rooney (r) and granddaughter Clare Rooney-Galterio (l), two of many Rooney family members committed to creating first rate entertainment & sporting attractions, while also doing more than their share of charitable and philanthropic work

The Rooney family has been prominent in American life since 1933 when Tim’s father, football Hall-of-Famer Art Rooney, invested $500 in a fledgling sports league called the NFL and a new franchise named the Steelers. Eventually the NFL’s popularity exploded and numerous Rooney family members have gone on to be standouts in industries such as football, horse racing and entertainment management, politics and acting. The family also notably intermarried with the Mara family, who have been owners of the New York Football Giants since 1925!

Since 1972 Tim Rooney has been the CEO of Yonkers Raceway, a track that first opened back in 1899. In 2006 the state allowed the Raceway to add thousands of slot machines.

Along with keeping an age-old horse racing and relatively new gaming tradition alive, Tim Rooney has stayed committed to charitable causes. The Rockland County Times, itself an age-old institution dating back to 1888, encourages readers to participate in Rooney’s Empire City Toy and Coat Drive and any other positive causes that touch your heart this holiday season.

Empire City Casino has a long history of reaching out to boost great causes, from its programs to assist victims of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 to the annual “One Walk” for juvenile diabetes research to the recent mass “Ice Bucket Challenge,” which raised money and awareness in the fight against ALS.